7 Nepalese women held at IGIA in suspected trafficking racket

A suspected women trafficking racket has been busted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here with the arrest of nine persons, including 7 Nepalese women, for allegedly using forged travel documents to go to Dubai.

New Delhi: A suspected women trafficking racket has been busted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here with the arrest of nine persons, including 7 Nepalese women, for allegedly using forged travel documents to go to Dubai.

The incident occurred over the last two days after which police registered an FIR yesterday and arrested these women and two employees working at the IGIA, based on an operation of the CISF.

Officials said the incident happened when CISF personnel detected suspicious activities of three women in the terminal area late night on July 20 and their questioning led sleuths to find that they had arrived here from Ahmedabad and not Nepal as claimed by the group identified as Puja Tamang (20), Malati Rai (26) and Laxmi Rai (41).

"The CCTV footage at the airport showed these women had arrived from Ahmedabad as they were supposed to travel to Dubai the next day. They had however claimed they arrived here from Nepal but the immigration stamp of Kathmandu airport on their passports was found to be forged," a senior CISF official said, adding, they were detained.

The official said this group led investigators to a batch of four more women who were supposed to reach IGIA early morning on July 21 from Ahmedabad.

"The women who were intercepted yesterday include Krishna Devi (29), Uma Bhujel (31), Sharmila Thapa (23) and Shova Kumari Pariyar (28). Like the earlier group, their immigration documents were also forged," the official said.

All these women were later handed over to immigration officials at the IGIA, who transferred the case to Delhi police which arrested them and slapped charges of cheating and forgery on them, the official said.

CISF spokesperson Hemendra Singh later said Delhi police arrested an Air India ground handling staffer identified as Kapil and another person working at IGIA identified as Manish for allegedly conniving and helping this group.

"It looks to be a case of women trafficking as all these women were attempting to assemble here in batches and then fly out to Dubai. Further investigations are on," the official said.

Numerous incidents of human trafficking, especially of women and young girls, have been busted by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the airport here and even the CBI has probed these cases.

An official said the investigators are looking at the trafficking angle as after the devastating earthquake in the Himalayan nation in April this year, there has been a heightened alert on this criminal activity.